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Some stars have family stories more shocking than any Hollywood script. Join us as we look at celebrities who grew up believing someone was their parent—only to learn the surprising truth later in life! From Oscar winners to music legends, these unexpected revelations changed lives and relationships forever.
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00:00Do you tell everybody everything, or are there some things you just don't tell?
00:06Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're looking at celebrities who learned that they weren't biologically related to a parent who raised them.
00:14Then I found out that my sister was really my mother.
00:20Sarah Polly. Acting since childhood, Sarah Polly has branched out as a writer and director, winning an Oscar for Women Talking.
00:28Would it be a good idea, before we list the pros and cons of staying and fighting, to talk about exactly what it is we're fighting for?
00:35Yet many would argue that Polly's best and most personal film to date is the 2012 documentary, Stories We Tell.
00:43Before reaching adulthood, Polly lost her mother to cancer.
00:46She was raised by her father, Michael, although it was evident to Polly's siblings that the two didn't physically resemble each other.
00:53And that struck me, and then I saw him with the red hair, and I really did think, yeah, I really thought it was true.
00:58So at some point, I think I did start to believe it was true, and thought someone should say something to you.
01:06It wasn't until years later that Polly learned her mother had an affair with Harry Gulkin, who produced the 1975 drama Lies My Father Told Me.
01:15Gulkin was Polly's biological father, as a DNA test confirmed in 2006.
01:20Polly initially kept this information private, but eventually decided to share her story.
01:25Then you said, do you still think so? And I said, after talking to you and looking at you for close to three hours, yes.
01:33I said, what do you think? And you said, yeah, I think so too.
01:38Mariska Hargitay.
01:40Mr. Universe bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay and Playboy Playmate Jane Mansfield had three children, Mickey Jr., Zoltan, and Mariska.
01:48By the time Mariska came along, the couple was estranged, the marriage almost officially over.
01:54Mariska was only a toddler when her mother died in a car crash.
01:58I was three years old when my mom died.
02:02And I don't really have any memories of her.
02:05Mickey and his new wife, Ellen Ciano, raised Mariska and her siblings.
02:10About a decade before breaking out as Olivia Benson on Law and Order SVU, Mariska unraveled the mystery of her parentage.
02:19She discovered that her biological father was Brazilian singer-comedian Nelson Sardelli, whom she met in her 30s.
02:26And he told me the whole story.
02:30That was 30 years ago.
02:33And I've kept it a secret ever since.
02:36While the actress developed a bond with Sardelli, she kept the Hargitay name and regards Mickey as her parent.
02:43She finally shared this revelation with the world in 2025.
02:46It's been so beautiful to realize this thing that I was so afraid of or made me feel less than.
02:54Now I came out of it and go, oh, well, I have two moms and two dads.
02:59Janet McCurdy.
03:01This former actress had a more than difficult relationship with her mom, Debra McCurdy.
03:05As detailed in her memoir, I'm Glad My Mom Died, Debra went to the grave with a secret.
03:11Her husband, Mark McCurdy, wasn't Janet's biological father.
03:15A year and a half after my mom died, who I thought was my father told me that he was not actually my biological father.
03:23Two of Janet's siblings, Scott and Dustin, weren't his biological children either.
03:27Mark kept the secret from them, but after he started dating Karen, Debra's high school best friend, she compelled him to come clean.
03:35Janet learned that her biological father is a jazz musician named Andrew, reportedly Andy Martin.
03:41People would be like, oh, dad, mom, and dad was okay, but mom is untouchable.
03:45Or even with dads, you can be like, oh, my dad never showed up.
03:47And people are like, oh, mine neither.
03:48She'd attend one of his concerts with a few friends, including her iCarly co-star, Miranda Cosgrove.
03:55Although Andrew knew his daughter existed, he kept his distance in case Mark wasn't aware.
04:00I went to meet him and we had a really great kind of first conversation.
04:06And then we saw each other for maybe three to four months, once a week, probably, for that amount of time.
04:13And then it got to a place where that one felt a little strange also.
04:18Priscilla Presley.
04:19Before marrying Elvis Presley, she was Priscilla Wagner and Priscilla Beaulieu.
04:25Her biological father was James Wagner, a U.S. Navy pilot who died in a plane crash a few months after Priscilla was born.
04:32Tragedy struck when Priscilla was six months old as her father, Wagner, lost his life in a plane crash while returning home on leave.
04:41Three years later, Priscilla's mother, Anne Lillian, remarried Paul Beaulieu of the U.S. Air Force.
04:47By the time she turned five, Priscilla's last name was changed from Wagner to Beaulieu.
04:52For a period, Priscilla was under the impression that Beaulieu was her biological father while going through a box of mementos.
04:59She found a folded American flag traditionally given to widows of soldiers.
05:03I saw the photograph. My mother and this strange man.
05:11And me when I was a baby.
05:13She also uncovered a photo of herself and her mother with Wagner, reading,
05:17Mummy, Daddy, Priscilla, on the back.
05:19Priscilla immediately called her mother, who told her everything.
05:22I meant to tell you this a million times, Anne.
05:29Daddy's not my real father, is he?
05:32Priscilla.
05:32Liv Tyler.
05:34It's no secret that Liv Tyler is the daughter of Steven Tyler.
05:37When this actress was born, though, her name was Liv Rundegren.
05:40In addition to the Aerosmith frontman, her mother, Playboy Playmate, Bebe Buell,
05:45was involved with rock musician Todd Rundegren.
05:48Buell became pregnant with Tyler's child.
05:50Everybody always says, every interview about me,
05:52they say that I'm the daughter of a rock star and I grew up on tour.
05:55But Todd Rundegren was my dad when I was younger. I had both of them.
05:59Due to Tyler's substance issues, Buell told people that Rundegren was the father.
06:04While Rundegren suspected that Liv wasn't biologically his,
06:07he nonetheless felt this kid needed a dad.
06:10Even after Rundegren and Buell broke up following Liv's birth,
06:14he continued to look out for her.
06:15It's funny because people only ever talk about Steven and they always tell all these stories,
06:21but he's been such a beautiful, wonderful influence in my life.
06:26Well, he was your father for those years and in a way he still is your father, of course.
06:29Yeah, yeah.
06:30Upon meeting Tyler a few years later, Liv started connecting the dots until the truth came out.
06:35As far as Liv is concerned, she has two dads.
06:38Well, I was eight when I found out he was my dad, but yeah, well, I have two fathers, kind of, yes.
06:45I was raised by Todd Rundegren.
06:47Kerry Washington.
06:48All these kind of, I think, isms and behaviours
06:52stemmed from me not being comfortable in my body.
06:55And I think some of that was being born into a lie.
07:00We wouldn't call it a scandal,
07:01but it was a shocker when Kerry Washington learned that her father Earl wasn't related to her by blood.
07:08Washington made this discovery through the show Finding Your Roots.
07:11If you're thinking, I don't remember that episode,
07:14it's because Washington's parents wouldn't do a DNA test.
07:17Born of a sperm donor, would that show up in the DNA testing?
07:25And Skip said, yes.
07:26Yeah, it is.
07:27It would.
07:27Yeah.
07:28And they said, well, we're not going to do the show, thank you so much.
07:30And he said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
07:31Finding Your Roots host, Henry Louis Gates Jr.,
07:34nevertheless got in touch with Washington's parents, who told him everything.
07:39Gates advised them to be honest with their daughter.
07:41That's what they did, telling Washington that, due to fertility issues,
07:45her mother, Valerie, used a sperm donor.
07:47And they sat me down, and my mom said,
07:50I know that you know it took us a long time to have you,
07:53because that was part of the narrative of how I came to be.
07:55She said, but we used a sperm donor.
07:58While surprising, it strangely made sense to Washington,
08:01who doesn't view her father differently.
08:03She's always loved him, and that truth has only reinforced that affection.
08:07My dad loves me so much, and I have been able to now return that love,
08:12because it hasn't changed.
08:13If anything, it's deeper.
08:15Sean Astin's life is a bit like a gender-flipped Mamma Mia.
08:21At the time of his conception, Sean's mother, Oscar winner Patty Duke,
08:25was involved with three men, Desi Arnaz Jr., Michael Tell, and John Astin.
08:31And there was also a father who dedicated himself to diffusing situations and reassuring these young men.
08:47Upon realizing she was pregnant, Duke married Tell, got an annulment less than two weeks later,
08:52told Arnaz that he was the father, and eventually married Astin,
08:56who adopted the then one-year-old Sean.
08:59When Sean was a teenager, Duke told him that Arnaz was his father.
09:03Tabloid headlines claim the unmarried 23-year-old star
09:06was carrying the love child of her 17-year-old boyfriend, Desi Arnaz Jr.
09:11By his 20s, Sean got a paternity test,
09:14concluding once and for all that Tell was his dad.
09:17Although he considers John Astin to be his father,
09:20Sean still grew close with Arnaz, Tell, and his stepfather, Michael Pierce.
09:25So, that's four dads.
09:27Because I was terrible at math, we'd do the times tables together,
09:30and I could never do 6 times 8, which is 48,
09:31and my dad would be like, 6 times 8, I'm 48!
09:33Eric Clapton
09:34This blues musician was raised to believe that his parents were Rose and Jack Clap.
09:40In reality, Eric's mother was Patricia Clapton,
09:42who was said to be his eldest sister.
09:45Rose was really his grandmother.
09:46While Jack was his step-grandfather,
09:49giving birth when she was a teenager,
09:51Patricia was absent for much of Eric's upbringing.
09:54He was around 9 when the truth surfaced.
09:57She left when I was very, very young,
09:59and I was raised by my grandparents.
10:02Eric's father, Edward Fryer, was almost a decade his mother's senior.
10:06Edward had been a soldier during World War II,
10:09returning to Canada once it ended.
10:11Eric never met his biological father,
10:13who died from leukemia in 1985.
10:15She met this Canadian.
10:19He was over here in England, in the village,
10:22and it was a one-night stand.
10:24This lack of closure was among the inspirations for the song
10:27My Father's Eyes,
10:28which Clapton first performed in 1992,
10:31and officially released in 1998.
10:34How will I know it
10:35when I look in my father's eyes?
10:39Demi Moore
10:40When Demi Moore was a young teenager,
10:43she found her parents' marriage certificate,
10:45but the dates didn't add up.
10:47They married in 1963.
10:49Moore was born a year earlier.
10:51This put Moore on a path of revelations.
10:53Her mother, Virginia King,
10:55had a brief marriage to Air Force pilot Charles Harmon,
10:58who ran out on his wife and unborn child.
11:01And then this stunning revelation
11:05that the man you loved as your father
11:08was not your biological father.
11:10Three months after giving birth,
11:12King married Dan Gwines,
11:14who raised Moore as his own.
11:16Despite their blood connection,
11:18Moore never formed a genuine relationship with Harmon,
11:20considering Gwines her real father.
11:22I made up about that,
11:24that I wasn't wanted,
11:27or that I don't deserve to be here.
11:30When her father leaves,
11:31she's responsible for her unstable mother.
11:34Tragically, not long after King and Gwines divorced
11:37for the second time,
11:38he took his life.
11:39Moore later had a falling out with her mother,
11:42although they made peace before her passing.
11:44And to belong.
11:45And when I look and find the compassion for my mother,
11:48I know that in that,
11:49I then open the pathway for my children
11:52to have compassion for me.
11:54Before we continue,
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12:10Jack Nicholson
12:11Jack Nicholson and Eric Clapton
12:13have a surprising amount in common,
12:15at least in terms of parentage.
12:17Like Clapton,
12:18Nicholson learned that his parents
12:20were his grandparents
12:21and his older sister June
12:23was his mother.
12:24His real mother, June,
12:26he believed was his sister.
12:28For the rest of their lives,
12:29his mother and grandmother
12:30would keep up this deception.
12:32Where Clapton was still young
12:34when he found out,
12:35Nicholson was in his late 30s.
12:38By then,
12:38his mother and grandmother
12:39had both been deceased
12:41for several years.
12:42Nicholson didn't learn the truth
12:43from family,
12:44but rather Time Magazine's research team.
12:46The magazine discovered
12:48that Jack's mother
12:49had all along
12:50been his grandmother,
12:52while his real mother
12:53had pretended to be his sister.
12:55And a man called
12:56Don Forcillo Rose
12:57was claiming to be his father.
12:59As for his father,
13:00it's been wildly theorized
13:02that June became pregnant
13:03from an affair
13:04with Donald Forcillo,
13:05a married showman.
13:07Yet this remains unconfirmed.
13:09In any case,
13:10Nicholson said
13:10it was dramatic
13:11when everything came to light,
13:13although it wasn't traumatizing.
13:14If anything,
13:15he was grateful to know.
13:17You know,
13:17you don't know exactly
13:18who or what or why you are.
13:20And I just felt
13:21if I kept that
13:21to an absolute minimum,
13:23I wouldn't be living
13:24with that the rest of my life.
13:26Can you think of
13:27any other celebrities
13:27with surprising parental backgrounds?
13:30Let us know in the comments.
13:32Visit me,
13:32we run around,
13:33we swim,
13:34we read.
13:36Sure,
13:37this is fascinating to you all.
13:44See you then.
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